Learning Experiences
by Laurus Nobilis
Summary: It was pretty clear that Cybertron would take a lot of getting used to. Sari needs to find someone who can teach her a thing or to.


**Notes:** I wrote this for the "Awesome Ladies Ficathon" on LJ. Because robot ladies need some love, too. :)

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It was pretty clear that Cybertron would take _a lot_ of getting used to. Sari had thought she'd be prepared for it: she was a techno-organic herself, after all, and she was used to being around giant robots. However, she soon discovered that she had no idea of how to deal with a whole planet of them.

The most obvious problem was that everything was _huge_. The smallest of Cybertronians were about Bumblebee's size, after all. Sari had never felt so tiny. Even walking around without getting squashed was complicated. Using her jetpack had sounded like a great idea at first, but it was _still_ hard to avoid bumping into people or buildings. Not to mention that some bots were quite organophobic… She had to admit it, they had a point when they told her not to go wandering on her own.

That didn't mean she had to like it, though. At first she'd thought that meant the guys would show her the most interesting stuff about their home, but she soon found out that it would be incredibly boring for some time. Everyone was far too busy. Optimus had an insane amount of things to do; Ultra Magnus wasn't quite repaired yet, and when word got out that Optimus's team had managed to capture Megatron, people instinctively looked to him for leadership. He still seemed very confused about the whole issue, but at least he had Jazz to help. Sari was sure that he'd do a good job, anyway. He was a great boss.

Ratchet was swamped with work, too, not to mention that he had a lot of catching up to do with his old friends. He deserved it, really, so Sari couldn't bring herself to feel jealous of them for getting his attention. Both Bulkhead and her dad spent most of their time supervising the construction of several safe, reliable space bridges so it'd be easier to travel between Cybertron and Earth. Even Bumblebee was always in a hurry. He had bragged so much about his speed that he had ended up working as an unofficial messenger of sorts.

They all made the effort to spend as much time with her as possible, but they weren't very successful at all. And they didn't even do the kind of work where Sari could go and help them when she wanted their company. (Well, she was pretty sure that she could have helped with the space bridges if they let her _try_, but it looked like engineers had an easily bruised ego.)

In any case, the end result was that Sari spent hours upon hours all on her own, not quite knowing what to do with herself. She needed something to _do_. Or even better - she needed someone who could give her advice that wasn't of the "just stay here and don't get in trouble" variety.

And then it hit her. She knew _exactly_ who to ask. Grinning to herself, she powered up her jetpack and took off. It didn't really count as wandering about alone is she was going to meet someone, right? The only thing that mattered to her was that she reached her destination safe and sound, so they wouldn't have any reason to scold her.

Once she arrived, Sari tapped at the window a couple of times, which was enough to get Arcee's attention. She looked up from the datapads she was reading and stood to let her in.

"Did you come all the way here on your own?" was the first thing she asked, frowning a little. Of course, Sari thought, and tried to refrain from rolling her eyes. All grown-ups were the same. She should have seen it coming.

"I just wanted to visit," she said, with a little shrug. Arcee visibly softened at that.

"Well, as long as you let one of us take you back home…" She paused for a moment, then added, "Ratchet isn't here yet, though. He's still working on Omega's repairs."

"That's okay. I came to see _you_."

"… oh." Arcee looked surprised, but pleasantly so, and Sari couldn't help but grin at her bemused expression.

"See, I've been… kinda confused lately. You know, about Cybertron and everything," she explained. With one last impulse of her jetpack, she sat on top of a desk, so that she could be more or less on eye level with Arcee. The Autobot gave her a thoughtful look.

"It must be strange, to be part of two completely different worlds."

"You have no idea," Sari sighed. "I mean, I was so used to being the one teaching my friends about Earth, and now… I'm pretty much lost. But I belong to _this_ planet, too. I don't want to keep feeling out of place just because I'm smaller! It'd be nice-" This time, it was her turn to make an awkward pause. "It'd be nice if someone would… teach me about it."

Truth be told, she hadn't known what reaction to expect. So she was quite relieved when she noticed that the idea didn't bother Arcee - in fact, she looked quite pleased with it.

"And you thought of me?"

"Sure! You used to be a teacher, right? And I promise I won't drive you crazy like I did with Tutor Bo- I mean. I'll be a model student!" she finished, with her most adorable smile.

What happened then was pretty strange, even by her standards. All Arcee had to do was slowly lift and optic ridge, and Sari could _tell_ that, yes, she was dealing with an actual experienced teacher here, and she might very well get in serious trouble if she tried anything funny.

In a way, that was exactly what she needed. Not that she was about to admit it out loud or anything. (In fact, she was pretty sure that Arcee _knew_.)

"So… we have a deal?"

"I have to warn you," said Arcee, now more serious, "there are plenty of things I have- missed."

"I know," she replied, suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable. She hadn't really meant to bring _that_ up. "But still… It'd be great if you could help. I need to start with the very basics, after all. Or else they'll never let me do things on my own!"

"So _that's_ your ulterior motive," Arcee laughed. "All right, then. We have a deal."

"_Great_! So, I guess I'd better go now before Ratchet shows up-"

"Not so fast, Missy. What did we say about staying here until someone took you home?"

"… so I have to wait here until I get yelled at?" Sari sighed.

"_Or_ we could go for a drive."

"I _love_ this deal already."


End file.
